The Antsokia Valley during Ethiopia's drought and famine of 1984-'86 was a parched dust bowl where 60,000 people were starving. By August 1989, due to return of rainfall and extensive development led by World Vision, the valley was green again and resistant to future famines. (Photo: 1989 Bruce Brander/World Vision)

30 years ago, a severe drought and famine struck Ethiopia, and within five years, World Vision's relief work there had become one of the best examples of our development model.

But the impact of our work became more than a famine-to-harvest story. As we mark 30 years of progress in Ethiopia's Antsokia Valley, read how that work also led to a deeper kind of transformation.

Pastor, speaker, and author Eugene Cho's parents grew up in extreme poverty in Korea. In this video interview, he describes the "not with hand-outs but with hand-ups" approach that gave them respect and dignity.

World Vision approaches community development in this way, working toward significant and lasting change in communities around the world. In an excerpt from Eugene's new book Overrated, he describes how these solutions work best for clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Team World Vision runner and teacher, Daniel Bauer, with some of his students.

Chicago teacher Daniel Bauer is a runner with Team World Vision, and leads his own team of student runners to raise money for clean water in Africa: "I know that God loves the poor and loves kids. Our marathon team is the perfect fusion of God’s love."

Read about the challenges these kids have faced and overcome in order to help other kids around the world!

“It feels like I am a million miles away from where I might have been, had God not interrupted my life from the course it was taking. I've gone from being a ‘Lost Boy’ of Sudan to a proud U.S. citizen who is loved and cared for by so many people in this country – no longer ‘lost!’” –Lopez Lomong

Released today, a new scientific study by the UNC Water Institute shows that World Vision water wells continue to flow for decades. But not because the wells function better. They keep flowing for so much longer than usual because World Vision teaches the people who need that water how to repair broken wells!

Read more about the study and see these programs in practice first-hand.

Tlangnunthang was once a poor casual laborer in India with no steady income and a grim future, but now he has become a successful rubber entrepreneur, earning a sustainable income and dreaming big.

Aiming to help him generate a sustainable income, World Vision gave him 200 rubber tree saplings, which have enabled his family to have access to good food, health, and education. And two of his children are sponsored through World Vision!

While World Vision's child sponsorship program is life-changing for millions of children and families around the world, the most exciting part for many sponsored children is the relationship they build with their sponsors!

See why 12-year-old Saro in Cambodia loves her sponsor's cards so much … and how her community has changed over the past 8 years.

The Millennium Development Goals are the most successful global anti-poverty push in history!

With 500 days left to the 15-year target date, learn about the progress that's been made toward these goals so far, what work still needs to be done in the fight against poverty, and where we're headed beyond 2015.

7-year-old Steven in Zambia and the malaria net that now helps keep him safe from malaria. (Photo: 2014 Jon Warren/World Vision)

Often in the communities where World Vision works, blessings abound.

Two weeks ago, our writer Kari Costanza discovered a new blessing: Mercy, a young mother in Zambia whose village believed her possessed because she had malaria so often, her 7 year old son Steven, and their whole village no longer get malaria!

Kari also discovered that the American couple that sponsors Steven are her friends! And the greatest gift to Mercy and Steven. Read their story!

Karona Kang in Cambodia has been helping children recover from trafficking and abuse with World Vision since 2009. (Photo: 2014 Vanndeth Um/World Vision)

Karona Kang from Cambodia began working with World Vision as a volunteer. Later, in 2009, she became a housemother at a World Vision Trauma Recovery project for girls who have survived trafficking and abuse.